Final Destination went through some changes during pre-production, including one key character change that saved the franchise, but this also created a huge mystery. Back in 2000, during the peak of teen horror movies, Final Destination arrived, directed by James Wong. Although it wasn’t the critics’ favorite and got mostly negative reviews, it was a big box-office success. Thanks to the latter, Final Destination spawned a movie series with five movies and a sixth one, тιтled Final Destination Bloodlines, coming out in 2025.
Final Destination follows Alex Browning (Devon Sawa), who has a vision of the plane he just boarded with his classmates exploding in midair. Alex panics, leading to him, his best friend, some classmates, and a teacher being taken off the plane, which they then watch explode. Not long after, the survivors begin to die in bizarre “accidents”, as Death begins to claim their lives, and it’s up to Alex to stop it. A big part of Final Destination’s appeal is its villain, who went through a major, key change that saved the franchise.
Final Destination’s Original Script Had Death Personified
Death Was Literally Going To Appear
The Final Destination franchise doesn’t have a villain in the traditional sense – there’s not a character who goes around chasing its targets with a weapon like in slasher movies, nor a demon possessing others or a monster lurking in the shadows. The villain in the world of Final Destination is Death itself, but in all five movies in the saga so far, Death hasn’t actually appeared, but this was going to be different in the original idea for the first movie.
Final Destination started as a spec script for The X-Files, written by Jeffrey Reddick. The idea for Final Destination came to Reddick after reading the story of a woman who was on vacation and her mother called her to not take her flight the next day because she had a bad feeling about it. The woman switched flights and the plane she should have been on crashed (via Bloody Disgusting). Reddick worked on his idea and wrote a script, but instead of submitting it to The X-Files, he was convinced to write it as a feature film (via Den of Geek).
Wong revealed that Death was “sort of personified” in that first draft, and remembers there was a “guy with a scythe”, but they didn’t want to do that.
New Line Cinema bought Reddick’s treatment and hired him to write the first draft, with writers James Wong and Glen Morgan later joining in to polish the script. Speaking to Bloody Disgusting in March 2025, in celebration of Final Destination’s 25th anniversary, Wong revealed that Death was “sort of personified” in that first draft, and remembers there was a “guy with a scythe”, but they didn’t want to do that. They decided to change the killer with the idea that death is around all of us, but it’s also sadistic, and that’s how Death ended up being the invisible villain of Final Destination.
Why Death Works Better As A Presence Rather Than A Person In Final Destination
Final Destination Benefits From An Invisible Villain
Death is never seen in the Final Destination movies, though at two different points in the first movie, it appears as a shadow right before it attacks, but that’s the closest the movies have come to showing Death. Changing Final Destination’s villain from a personified character to an invisible one was a wise decision, as seeing Death as a materialized character would have been too distracting, and would have killed the build-up and suspense of the bizarre and creative deaths.
As Wong said, the idea of Death being around all the time and just waiting to unleash its plan on the survivors adds to the suspense and paranoia of Final Destination, as neither the audience nor the characters (at least not the victims themselves) know when and where Death will attack. Surely, not all horror movies would work with an invisible villain, but Final Destination has the perfect premise and concept for it, and I don’t think the franchise would have come this far with a personification of Death.
Death’s Change Created A Bigger Mystery In The Final Destination Saga
Someone Else Might Be Death Itself
Death is an invisible but lurking and sadistic presence in the Final Destination movies, but the changes made to the character in pre-production led to the franchise’s biggest mystery. In Final Destination, Alex and Clear (Ali Larter) meet William Bludworth (Tony Todd), a mortician at the funeral home where Tod’s corpse was taken. It’s thanks to Bludworth that they learn about Death’s plan, and Bludworth continues being a mysterious but very knowledgeable presence in the Final Destination franchise.
The mystery of Bludworth has led to the belief that he is Death itself, which would completely ruin the above-mentioned change in this villain.
However, none of the Final Destination movies so far have properly gone into Bludworth’s character, so his backstory is unknown, as well as why he knows so much about Death’s rules, plans, design, etc. The mystery of Bludworth has led to the belief that he is Death itself, which would completely ruin the above-mentioned change in this villain, but at the same time, if Bludworth isn’t Death, then it’s unknown who he really is. Luckily, Final Destination Bloodlines is expected to solve all Bludworth mysteries, so it’s to be seen if he’s Death or not.
Sources: Bloody Disgusting, Den of Geek.
Final Destination
- Created by
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Jeffrey Reddick
- First Film
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Final Destination
- Latest Film
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Final Destination 5
- Upcoming Films
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Final Destination: Bloodlines
- Cast
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Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Tony Todd, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, A.J. Cook, Michael Landes, Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher
Summary
“Final Destination” is a horror franchise known for its unique premise centered around the inevitability of death. Each installment typically follows a group of individuals who escape a catastrophic accident due to a premonition experienced by one member of the group. However, Death, unwilling to be cheated, begins to claim the survivors in a series of increasingly elaborate and gruesome accidents. The franchise has gained a cult following for its inventive death scenes, tension-building storytelling, and the overarching theme that death is unavoidable.
